1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to generating and reporting call records for intraLATA calls based on account codes.
2. Acronyms
The written description provided herein contains acronyms which refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of the written description herein, the acronyms are defined as follows:
Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN)
Automatic Measure Assignment (AMA)
Central Exchange Service (Centrex)
Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)
Electronic Key Telephone System (EKTS)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
HyperText Mark-Up Language (HTML)
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Line Information Database (LIDB)
Local Access and Transport Area (LATA)
Outgoing Call Control (OCC)
Personal Computer (PC)
Personal Call Manager/Personal Communications Manager (PCM)
Personal Identification Number (PIN)
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
Service Control Point (SCP)
Service Management System (SMS)
Service Switching Point (SSP)
Signaling System 7 (SS7)
Signaling Transfer Point (STP)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
3. Background Information
Presently, customers using the public switched telephone network (PSTN) receive limited information regarding outgoing telephone calls. The telephone call information received is presently based on call detail records, generated within the PSTN and includes, for example, simplified message detail recording (SMDR) records. The telephone call information is usually provided to the customers in the form of periodic bills from the network provider or telephone service provider. The call detail records, on which the telephone call information is based, are accessible by the network provider at a host central processing unit.
However, the current call detail record system has certain drawbacks. For example, specific billing information is ordinarily tracked and available for calls made from one local access and transport area (LATA) to another (i.e., interLATA or long distance calls). Billing and usage information for calls within the same LATA (i.e., intraLATA or local calls), including local toll calls, are not maintained by the network or otherwise accessible to the network provider and customers. Therefore, the customers are not able to track intraLATA calls in the same manner as interLATA calls. For example, customers may desire identifying codes to be entered next to each charged call in order to facilitate subsequent billing of the customers' respective clients.
Furthermore, the collection and dissemination of the telephone call information, on which the call detail records are based, are currently limited. The call detail records include data collected at service switching points or service control points in the PSTN. As stated above, the information is made available to the customers periodically, in a format determined by the network provider, usually based on conventional automatic measure assignment (AMA) records, e.g., monthly bills, at the provider's discretion.
Conventional attempts to provide more flexibility to the customers with respect to billing or other reporting services are likewise limited. For example, customers may initiate and modify billing services by calling a customer service representative or by interacting with an interactive voice response (IVR) system using a standard dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) telephone device. Because these methods rely on audible presentations of the telephone call information, they limit, as a practical matter, the extent of interaction between the systems collecting and storing the call detail information and the customers.
There have been attempts to remedy the problems associated with IVR access to PSTN call detail records making the records accessible to a packet switched data network, such as the Internet or a corporate intranet, to avoid conventional IVR systems and to streamline the interactive functionality. In particular, the customers are able to access the telephone call information, stored either within the PSTN or in external databases, using a graphical user interface (GUI) connected by a web server to the Internet. The current Internet based systems have several drawbacks, however, including the inability to receive near real-time updates of telephone call information and to implement near-real time changes to the record keeping system, the inability to flexibly specify the content and format of the telephone call information received, and incompatibility with existing IVR implementations.
The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art, as described below.